Introduction to Anthropology: Research, Social Organization, Kinship, and Gender

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering academic research sources, ethnography, political classifications, subsistence strategies, kinship systems, marriage types, gender theories, and anthropological film case studies.

Young Library Databases

Online academic research search engines (such as Anthropology Plus, JSTOR, and ProQuest) accessed via the ANT 160/220 research guide that provide peer-reviewed, vetted academic literature rather than open web results.

Scholarly Articles

Academic and peer-reviewed articles written by experts and vetted by other specialists before publication, which scientists and scholars rely on exclusively for accuracy, credible evidence, and methodological rigor.

Popular Publications

Sources written for general audiences without peer review, such as newspapers and websites, which differ from scholarly works that present original research, data analysis, and formal academic citations.

Abstract

A short summary outlining the main arguments and findings of a research paper.

Book Review

An analytical evaluation and summary of a published book written by another scholar.

Academic Article

A full-length original research report or theoretical paper published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Ethnography

Both a research process involving fieldwork and the final written product describing a culture, utilizing data collection techniques like participant observation, interviews, and life histories.

Bronislaw Malinowski

The anthropologist who "invented" modern ethnography during WWI after becoming stranded in the Trobriand Islands, which forced long-term fieldwork living among locals.

Participant Observation

A core anthropological research method where the researcher lives within a community, participating in daily life while observing and recording data.

Bands

Small, mobile foraging groups (such as the !Kung / Ju/'hoansi) that are egalitarian and have informal leadership.

Tribes

Larger horticultural or pastoralist groups organized by lineages and descent groups and led by village heads or elders.

Chiefdoms

Centralized, stratified societies led by a permanent hereditary chief who possesses formal authority and oversees redistribution systems.

States

Formal political structures characterized by a centralized government, class stratification, laws, a bureaucracy, and a monopoly on legitimate force.

Horticulture

Non-intensive plant cultivation utilizing simple hand tools such as hoes and digging sticks and shifting plots via slash-and-burn.

Agriculture

Intensive cultivation involving continuous land use, plows, draft animals, irrigation, and/or terracing.

Origins of Agriculture

The independent emergence of plant and animal domestication across multiple regions around $10,000$ to $12,000$ years ago.

Kinship

Culturally defined relationships based on blood (consanguineal) or marriage (affinal).

Nuclear Family

A family form consisting exclusively of parents and children.

Family of Orientation

The family in which an individual is raised.

Family of Procreation

The family formed through marriage and having children.

Bilateral Descent

A descent ideology tracing ancestry equally through both maternal and paternal lines, in which a person recognizes the most relatives overall (practiced in mainstream American society).

Unilineal Descent

A kinship system that traces descent exclusively through one ancestral line, either female or male.

Matrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system where descent is traced exclusively through females; it is the mirror image of a patrilineal system.

Patrilineal Descent

A unilineal descent system where descent is traced exclusively through males; it is the mirror image of a matrilineal system.

Affines (Affinal Relatives)

Relatives by marriage.

Collaterals

Relatives off to the side on a kinship diagram, including siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Lineal Relatives

Direct ancestors and descendants, such as parents, grandparents, and children.

Kinship Diagram Symbols

Standard anthropological symbols including a Triangle for Male, a Circle for Female, an Equals sign ($=$) for Marriage, and a Vertical line for Descent.

Endogamy

A marriage rule prescribing marriage within a specific group.

Exogamy

A marriage rule prescribing marriage outside of a specific group.

Patrilocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern where the married couple lives with or near the husband's family.

Matrilocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern where the married couple lives with or near the wife's family.

Neolocal Residence

A post-marital residence pattern where the married couple establishes an independent household.

Bridewealth

Gifts or wealth given by the groom's family to the bride's family.

Dowry

Wealth brought by the bride's family to the marriage.

Polygamy

A marriage system that permits an individual to have multiple spouses.

Polygyny

A form of polygamy where one man is married to multiple wives; accepted in a majority of the world's societies, although monogamy remains most common on-the-ground.

Polyandry

A form of polygamy where one woman is married to multiple husbands.

Sex

Biological and anatomical differences between males and females.

Gender

The cultural construction of male and female roles.

Gender Roles / Stereotypes

Assigned tasks and oversimplified ideas about men and women within a culture.

Gender Stratification

The unequal distribution of rewards, including power, prestige, and resources, between genders.

Intersex

Reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit typical definitions of male or female.

Sexual Dimorphism

Marked biological differences in average size and features between males and females.

Sheryl Sandberg

Author of "Lean In" who argues that women hold themselves back due to internal and societal cultural scripts.

Margaret Mead

Famous anthropologist known for the statement: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Dadi’s Family

A film case study set in India documenting a large, patriarchal extended family with a patrilineal descent ideology living in a patrilocal household, highlighting friction between urban and rural expectations.

Kingdom of Women (Mosuo Culture)

A film case study set along China's Yunnan-Sichuan border focusing on a matrilineal society living in matrifocal extended households where traditional nuclear marriage is absent and uncles serve as primary male figures to children.

Walking Marriage

A visiting romantic relationship practiced in Mosuo culture where partners do not coreside and children belong exclusively to the mother's matrilineal household.